Released in the U.S. by Icarus Publishing
Slugline: Remember that dream you had about going to school naked? It just got worse!
Like all Icarus titles, this is PORN.
PORN!
So for the remainder of the people who are still reading this, or who haven't figured out how to set up the parental controls, I try to review porn books on their own merits. That is: how well they deliver the porn, not in how well the story flows, or the art, or, well, the usual criteria (though if it does manage it, I am more likely to give it a better rating). I do have a problem with non-consensual stories, and I realize that yes, it is fiction, but I am just not wired to find that sort of stuff appealing.
This came close, because this entire volume was about humiliation and exhibitionism, with many of the forms of humiliation being because of exhibitionism. Fortunately, force wasn't really used here (other than one or two stories) so I wasn't working against an ick factor here. There isn't a central story either, just vignettes where people are forced to publicly strip, have sex, and the other aspects of humiliation/exhibitionism sex. Most of the other usual tropes of hentai are there, but muted to focus on the exhibitionist fetish which seems to the point of this volume (for instance, there is just ONE cross dressing guy.)
The art sometimes verges on the cute side, so sometimes it is hard to take the stuff going on very seriously. Since the characters don't seem to be taking themselves all that seriously, it gives you the emotional distance necessary for these characters to remain just pictures on a page, so that even the humiliation has a distance to it. But the volume is all about the exhibitionism fetish, so if that is not your cup of tea -- since quite frankly I can't think of anything that couldn't be interpreted as a clever double entendre -- your appreciation of the volume will be probably be directly proportional to your appreciation of exhibitionism.
Flash Bang! is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.
- Ferdinand
